1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus that performs recording by the use of a nozzle row to be supplied with liquid from a liquid receptor of a side where liquid remains, when liquid is depleted in at least one of a plurality of liquid receptors receiving the same kind of liquid, and a recording method.
2. Related Art
As this kind of printing apparatus, an ink jet type printer is known which ejects ink supplied from an ink cartridge from nozzles of a recording head, thereby printing a document, an image or the like on a print medium such as paper.
In the related art, a printing apparatus is disclosed which has a configuration in which an ink tank to be used in forming an ink dot is selected depending on respective ink residual quantities of a plurality of ink tanks that accommodates the same color ink (for example, JP-A-2003-1842, JP-A-2000-15837 or the like). For example, according to the printing apparatus described in JP-A-2003-1842, an additional nozzle row and a black ink nozzle row capable of ejecting black ink are separately connected to an additional ink tank and a black ink tank, respectively. The additional nozzle row is shifted to the black ink nozzle row by two dots in a sub scanning direction. For this reason, in the case of a monochrome printing mode, when both of the additional ink tank and the black ink tank are determined to be usable ink tanks, printing is performed at a high speed by the use of both of the additional nozzle row and the black ink nozzle row. In this case, the additional nozzle row and the black ink nozzle row K form the different raster lines by the same main scanning.
Furthermore, when an ink residual quantity of one ink tank is not equal to or greater than a threshold value, if ink remains in any one of the plurality of ink tanks, it is possible to form ink dots by the use of the nozzle row that is supplied with ink from the ink tank of the side where ink remains.
Furthermore, in the printing apparatus described in JP-A-2000-15837, ink is selectively supplied from at least a pair of ink cartridges for supplying the same color ink to an ink jet type recording head via an ink supply valve. In the printing apparatus, when an ink depletion detection unit detects that one of the ink cartridges is depleted, the valve is switched by valve opening and closing control unit, whereby the printing can be continued.
However, in the printing apparatus of JP-A-2003-1842, if ink remains in any one of a plurality of ink tanks, ink dots are formed by the use of the nozzle row supplied with ink from the ink tank of the side where ink remains. In this case, the additional nozzle row and the black ink nozzle row are shifted by two dots in the sub scanning direction, and the dots printed in the first main scanning are different from each other between the additional nozzle row and the black ink nozzle row, and thus, there is a need to create the different print data depending on the use nozzle row.
In this case, upon detecting the ink depletion, the ink tank of the ink depletion is confirmed (a cartridge confirmation process), and the nozzle row connected to another ink tank, where ink remains, is selected in the use nozzle row (a nozzle row selection process). Moreover, the print data depending on the selected use nozzle row is generated (a print data generating process). Furthermore, the reception place of the print data confirms whether or not the print data is correct depending on the use nozzle row (a data confirmation process). Moreover, when it is confirmed that the print data is correct corresponding to the use nozzle row, the print data is set to the driving system of the corresponding nozzle row and an ink droplet is ejected from the use nozzle row of the recording head, thereby performing the printing on the paper.
In this manner, since there is a need to discriminate the nozzle row connected to the ink cartridge of the side in which ink remains and generates the print data depending on the discriminated nozzle row, as mentioned above, there is a need for a plurality of processes such as the cartridge confirmation process, the nozzle selection process, the print data generating processing, and the data confirmation process. For this reason, the process to be performed when the ink in the ink tank becomes depleted is complicated. As a consequence, there is a problem in that the process burden of a CPU due to the complication of the process is increased, and it is difficult to share the processing program between types of model having different nozzle arrangement patterns of the printing apparatus.